How Responsible Are Companies in Global Issues?

New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) spoke today in Washington, DC at a hearing and compared the present issues regarding freedom of information on the Internet to IBM's alleged participation in the Holocaust.

IBM is obviously not loving the press coverage that reminds everyone of the lawsuit of 2001, which ended up being dropped so that it wouldn't hold up a restitution agreement that was already being agreed to by German companies. IBM has long maintained that their German division was taken over by the Nazi regime and they had no direct responsibility for sales of punch-card systems, but can today's Internet companies claim the same type of innocence?

Smith has sponsored the Global Online Freedom Act, which is intended to limit how much U.S. companies can cooperate with foreign governments, especially when it comes to providing governments with methods to suppress information and content, or use information against dissidents.

Yahoo, the company that has probably taken the most heat due to its cooperation with the Chinese government that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of dissident Shi Tao, has attempted to reverse some of the damage done. CEO Jerry Yang has been pushing the U.S. government to encourage China to release the dissidents imprisoned for their online expressions.

At the same time, Human Rights Watch is preparing a code of conduct to address how companies should deal with the Internet censorship in China. According to HRW executive director Kenneth Roth, all the major foreign Internet companies who are currently operating in China are part of the effort to assemble the code of conduct.

Companies have traditionally bowed to pressure from governments in blocking what the governments deem offensive content in order to get their sites accessible again, with the argument that some content and information is better than none at all.

The Internet provides an amazing opportunity for freedom of expression and dissemination of information. It may take the combined efforts of governments and corporations to provide greater access for citizens of some countries.